Back to school photos...on projects that have nothing to do with school?!?

Yup! It's true! I only do one to two layouts about back to school per year BUT I take dozens of photos before the kids start school. So, what do I do with the other photos. I use then throughout the year on layouts that I have a story to tell but not necessarily a photo to go with it. This layout is an example of that.

On this layout I wanted to tell the story of my daughter saying her prayers one night but I didn't have a photo of her that told that particular story. So I just chose one of the photos I took on our back to school photo shoot and used it to help tell the story.

I do a lot of layouts without the photos and stories matching exactly. When my kiddos say something cute that I want to remember, or I think of a story to tell; I write the story down right then. Then when I am ready to scrapbook that story or memory I scroll through my back to school photos and find one that I like and use it.

I have another example of this in the July issue of Scrapbook Trends Magazine, I'll post a photo of that when I can :)

Thanks for taking time to stop by!

Goodbye Summer

This is another one of my back to school layouts using last years photos. Not all back to school projects have to be related to school. On this particular layout I talked about saying goodbye to summer and all the new things and new routines that this time of year brings.

 Tomorrow I'll talk about using back to school photos on projects that have nothing to do with school.
Thanks for stopping by!

Getting Ready for Back to School

The kiddos go back to school in one month. They don't start until after Labor Day. I'm not sure if I like the new schedule or not. Cole is ready to go back and counting down the days until the first day of school. I'm not quite that anxious but I have already started getting ready for the big day.

I saw that Jen Gallacher is offering THIS new blog event. (I'm a stalker, oops, I mean frequent visitor of her blog.) I am SO excited! I know I'll be there because I love back to school photos and layouts. I adore Jen's style and can't wait to see what she has to offer. I've taken her classes before and I've never been disappointed!


One of my favorite things about back to school is taking back to school photos. We started the tradition when my oldest started kindergarten and we've kept the tradition. I love to get the kids in their new school clothes and get some great personality shots of each of them. Cole is usually silly and thinks he his way too old for mom to be doing this I expect he'll get better when he gets older (I know, I know, it's only going to get worse). Kayleigh loves to have her pictures taken and gives me the sweetest smiles and wants to take pictures in all of her new school clothes.

This is one of the layouts I did with last years back to school photos.This photo is on the list of my all time favorite photos. It's so Kayleigh. She takes a book with her wherever she goes and is constantly reading. She even takes breaks from her school work to read a book. She brought her books along when we went out on our back to school picture taking spree so I couldn't help but get some photos of her enthralled in her latest book.

I wanted to give the layout a unique embellishment that looked like books so I rolled a few patterned  papers and lined them up together to look like books on a shelf. I added some crochet thread and a button to dress it up a little bit.

 I also used part of a wooden ruler as a border on the bottom. I had already cut it down and used the other portion on another craft project.

Happy Monday and thanks for stopping by!

I have a few more layouts with back to school photos that I'll be featuring throughout this week.